I. Field of Use
The present application relates to the field of data management and consumer experience design. More specifically, the present application relates to a system, apparatus and method for using retail and personal customer data to create tailored user experiences to customers of retail establishments.
II. Description of the Related Art
Retail establishments have embraced powerful data systems over the years to support their businesses. For example, computerized Point of Sales (POS) systems have been used to allow electronic payments, manage inventory, and determine purchasing habits of their customers. More recently, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have been used to identify consumer trends and predict future consumer purchasing behaviors. Many of these systems have been in use for years.
One drawback of such “legacy” point-of-sale systems, however, is that the information produced by these systems is typically formatted in a proprietary manner unique to each type of system, and the various brands of these systems. Thus, data generated by an NCR POS system is formatted differently than data generated by a Micros system. Therefore, data generated by these systems and services available through them cannot easily be used for other purposes or by other applications. In order to do so, custom software development is needed on the part of both the legacy system developers, as well as developers of the new functionality. This requires a great deal of time and money to develop.
Thus, it would be desirable to use the proprietary information produced by legacy retail systems and the services offered by these systems in other applications without having to develop customized software solutions for each individual legacy piece of software used.